Xenosaga with a Ranma Twist
by Kuragari no Oshiego
Summary: A story set in the Xenosaga universe but using the cast of Ranma 12. If you've not played Xenosaga be warned that there is a lot of religous overtones. It's rated T cause of violence I guess, and some language.
1. Abandon Ship!

**A.D. 60XX aboard the Federation cruiser Woglinde **

Ukyo gazed at the realian laying on the maintenance bed in front of her. The girl had bright red hair tied in a short pony-tail, a matching red silk shirt, baggy black pants tied off at the ankle but moss curiously of all, she had at least a full b-cup. Ukyo noticed this from a purely scientific standpoint; the realian had been found in an A.M.W.S. unit and female combat realians had no breasts to speak of since they just got in the way. Ukyo was perplexed, she had never run into this model of realian before even though she had been working with Vector's Third Division as a realian specialist for a little over three years. But that _was_ why they had called her, to figure who the realian was and where she came form. All the information they could give her was that the realian had been found floating in an A.M.W.S. out in space and when they brought her on board nobody could rouse her. Ukyo sighed as she activated her computer and connected to the realian; she had really hoped that signing up for a tour with the Woglinde would be a chance for her some R&R.

**Bridge of the Woglinde**

Captain Moriyama looked upon his bridge crew with pride. Six navigators worked dutifully at their terminals in front of him and to either side he had two crewmembers constantly checking the area for potential threats. One of his navigators spoke up, "Captain we are nearing the U.M.N. column."

"Excellent. Prepare to gate-jump. Order all ships in the fleet to form up on the Woglinde." Moriyama responded.

"Aye-aye, Captain. All ships entering approach. 19 minutes, 30 seconds to column area." The man paused for a moment. "U.M.N. pulse received. Current coordinates locked. Transfer vector correction to 103. Target: Athens Column."

From Moriyama's left came a hesitant whisper. "Captain, I'm detecting something out of the ordinary…" The voice picked up strength and not a little bit of panic. "Detecting a large-scale spatial distortion ahead of us! An enormous mass is gating out!"

"Impossible!" Moriyama sputtered. "We're still outside the column area!"

"The U.M.N. geodesic structure is being breached! The target…it appears to be interacting with the U.M.N. somehow!"

Moriyama hustled over to the terminal to see for him self. "It's being hacked?! That's possible?! Massive gravity fluctuations! Surface anomalies forming in space-time!"

One of his navigators jumped up. "Impossible! That defies all laws of physics!"

The man who first detected the anomaly was feverishly working at his terminal. "Computing mass – the numbers are completely inconsistent! I can't get a clear reading! Whatever it is, it's huge! The amplitude…the hell? It's like a tidal wave!! The

readings are increasing! It's entering normal space! Captain!!"

One of the navigators shouted, "Straight ahead!! There it is!!"

**Realian Matinence Lab**

"Gnosis!"

Ukyo jumped out of her seat with a "What the--?" The realian had abruptly come awake and gasped out that one word. Not a second after the realian had come awake, red warning lights started and a message started repeating over the intercom, "This ship is under DefCon 1 alert. All hands to battle stations."

The realian hopped of the bed and walked to the doorway. She peeked out and looked left and right before spinning around and shouting, "Get down!"

Ukyo instinctively looked behind her and saw a nightmare come to life. A translucent monster with a huge torso mounted on stumpy legs was slowly coming _through_ her ceiling. The gnosis landed on her floor and let out a deafening roar. The realian leaped over her head and straight at the monster. A wash of blue light appeared a few meters ahead of her and when it hit the gnosis, the translucent monster turned solid. An energy sword blazed to life in the realian's hand and she neatly cut the monster in half.

Ukyo stared at the realian for a moment before coming to her senses. "That was-that was amazing! Was that the Hilbert effect?"

The realian didn't even bother to answer, instead she focused her red eyes on Ukyo and asked, "Where's the Zohar? That's what their after."

"The what? You mean that thing you were found with? The giant yellow cross?"

"Yeah!" A smile lit the realian's face. "Do you know where it's at?"

Ukyo thought for a minute. "Well, I would guess it would still be in the A.G.W.S. hanger."

"Quick! Show me where it is." The realian responded as she started to exit the room.

"W-wait a minute! I don't even know your name!" Her name? Ukyo thought to herself. Why am I treating this realian like a human?

The realian looked back with a look of surprise on her face. "My name?"

"Yeah. I'm Ukyo Kounji, a realian specialist with Vector's Third Division."

The realian smirked, but in a sad sort of way. "When I was in this form, my father always used to call me Kiritsu, so I guess that'll do."

"Your father!?" Ukyo exclaimed with disbelief.

"Hang on." Kiritsu darted out the doorway with her sword again shining in her grasp. Ukyo quickly followed Kiritsu out the doorway to find Kiritsu standing over the corpse of another gnosis. "We need to get moving," was all she said.

**Bridge of Woglinde**

"Delta sector has gone silent! Fire control net functionality down to 20!"

Moriyama slammed his fist into the counsel in front of him. "Fire control, what's going on down there?! Take out the mother ship!"

One of his crewmen shouted back at him "We can't! We're too close to fire the cannons!"

"There's a breach in the reactor room!"

"Emergency core shutdown! Switch to reserves!"

"A.G.W.S. losses have exceeded 70!"

"We've lost the Ogetsu!"

"Beason's team destroyed!"

Moriyama slumped back in his seat. They had come too fast, large gnosis were destroying his ships while their smaller counterparts were invading and slaughtering the crews. Out of the four ship taskforce his was the only one still capable of fighting. "We need reinforcements!" he said out loud.

His communications officer responded, "I'm trying! This is the cruiser Woglinde with the 117th Marine Division! We're engaged with the Gnosis! Coordinates KX417, Y009, Z735! Requesting immediate reinforcements! Repeat!"

One of his crewmen looked back at him "Captain, it must be…"

Moriyama nodded. A few hours ago they had found a monolithic yellow cross floating in space where the planet Ariadne used to be. When they had communicated what they found back to headquarters his taskforce had been ordered to return with all possible speed. It was the only thing he could think of that would make the gnosis attack like this. Suddenly, he felt the ship pitch.

"Logic Drive down! Fire in Section F! Defensive perimeter breached! Captain!! They're headed straight for the ship!"

Moriyama looked up to see a gnosis headed straight for the command bridge "--Noooo!"

**Somewhere in the Woglinde**

The whole ship lurched, almost throwing Ukyo off balance. Kiritsu settled steadied her and asked, "Are we close to the hanger yet?"

Ukyo responded, "Actually, I need to stop by my room first."

"What!?" Kiritsu shouted. "We need to hurry!"

"Hang on just a second! It's right up here." Ukyo hustle down a hallway and into her room. When she emerged, she had her shoulder-length hair thrown into a quick ponytail, a bandoleer slung over her shoulder and, firmly in her grasp, was a large spatula.

"That's what you needed?" Kiritsu said derisively.

"Yeah, I use it to fight. I'm a martial artist too."

"O.K…" Kiritsu said with a skeptical look. In response Ukyo quickly swung her spatula so the edge was gently touching Kiritsu's neck. "Alright! I get it. I'm sorry. Now can we get going?"

As Ukyo and Kiritsu started to run down the hallway Kiritsu asked, "So where are we anyway?"

"Aboard the Woglinde. This ship is the head of a task force thrown together to investigate the disappearance of the planet Ariadne."

"Thrown together?"

"Yeah, they wanted to send someone out as soon as possible."

"Well that explains the lack of preparedness."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that in space now days, especially if your investigating something strange like a planet disappearing, you need to be able to deal with a gnosis attack. Yet as far as I can tell, no ship in this taskforce is equipped to use the Hilbert effect, leaving the force almost defenseless against the gnosis."

Ukyo frowned and she pondered what Kiritsu had said. She rounded a corner and slipped sliding into something warm and wet. Ukyo opened her eyes and then emptied her stomach. She had slid face-first into the messy entrails of a dead human. Apparently, the ships forces had made a stand against the gnosis here, and lost. All along the hallway humans and realians were torn limb from limb or even more sickeningly completely smashed. The only thing left alive was a gnosis that seemed to be eating one of the humans. Rage replaced horror and Ukyo charged the monster and swung her spatula right at its head. The spatula bounced of the translucent body but Ukyo swung again and again until, suddenly, the translucent body solidified. Ukyo tore the gnosis into shreds and continued to slash and the corpse until she fell to he knees sobbing over and over "How could they do this!?"

Kiritsu stood over her looking rather uncomfortable. She hesitantly reached down, patted Ukyo on the shoulder and answered her question. "Because they're monsters Ukyo, but if you get me to the hanger I may be able to stop them from doing this to more people." After a few seconds Ukyo nodded, stood up and silently began running towards the hanger.

When they got there it was already too late. They watched as the tail-end of the Zohar disappeared through a portal that the gnosis had made. Kiritsu cursed as the last of the gnosis disappeared through the portal. "What do we do now?" Ukyo asked.

"We have to get off this ship. We'll take Rueben."

"You're A.M.W.S.?" Ukyo responded as she gazed up at the giant craft. It was humanoid shaped, light armored and jet-black with two sheathes strapped to its back. The chest of the craft opened exposing two seats, one set above the other. Kiritsu hopped in and rapidly started to start up the craft. "What about the other people on the ship?"

Kiritsu looked up at Ukyo. "They all either abandoned ship already…or they're dead. I don't read any more life forms aboard the ship."

"Oh." Ukyo looked around the hanger one more time and gave a quick salute to the men and women who died aboard it, and then she hopped into the second seat of Rueben.

**Author's Notes**

Usual stuff, reviews are appreciated whilst flames are not. I only had one guy pre-read this for me and he is worse with grammer than I am so if you are intrested in being a pre-reader send me an e-mail ar By the way, I hate the title so if you have a suggestion please tell me. I'm serious.


	2. Gathering of Characters

**A Few Days Ago on Fifth Jerusalem – Sub-Committee Conference Room**

As Nodoka Saotome took her seat among the circle of Sub-Committee members a mustachioed man asked "So, what can you tell us about this man?"

A bald-headed Sub-Committee member rubbed a hand over his head in a practiced motion before replying, "His name is Ryoga Hibiki. He graduated from the Federation Police Academy at the top of his class; his teacher especially complimented his hand-to-hand combat prowess. In light of this, he was attached to a special counter terrorism unit. He quit a year later for undisclosed reasons and has since been working as a freelance bounty hunter. Rumor has it he's looking for someone."

Another man commented, "He certainly has an impressive resume…but why is he a week late to our meeting?"

The bald-headed man nervously replied, "Well for some reason he has trouble navigating, even though it would seem impossible now days. On the other hand, he always seems to show up at places at the most opportune moment. He's taken an incredible amount of cases that were thought to be lost causes and somehow found the man he was looking for. That's why we've contacted him."

A hologram of a women popped up and said "Mr. Hibiki is here."

The mustachioed man said, "Send him in."

Nodoka gasped as Ryoga walked through the door. He looked like your average muscle-bound young man save that his arm below his left elbow was completely metal and, even more jarring, the left side of his face from his hair line to his mouth and stretching back to his ear was a metal plate with an eerie red glow where is eye used to be.

The bald man laughed tensely and said, "I forgot to mention that he has some cybernetic enhancements…"

The mustachioed man grunted, "How anachronistic."

The bald man turned to Ryoga and asked, "I have been meaning to ask you why you chose to have cybernetic replacements in an age when we have realian technology."

Ryoga was silent for a moment before he answered, "I thought I was asked here to be given a job, not to be asked personal questions."

The bald man, noticeably flustered, said, "Yes, well, do you know anything about the job?"

"No."

"Well, fourteen years ago the scientist Genma Saotome disappeared with a realian of some importance. Federation Intelligence has been hunting them since. They were spotted on Second Militia a few months ago but managed to escape again. Since Federation Intelligence has failed so many times it was decided to bring in an independent bounty hunter. You were chosen because you have an incredibly high success rate, a reputation for catching the uncatchable—"

"Spare me the flattery."

Rather indignantly, the bald man held up a hologram of two faces side by side. One was of a bespectacled man with a rather fat face and the other was of a handsome, pig-tailed boy. "These are the two targets. Be warned: they are both highly skilled martial—"

"Are you willing to pay my standard fee?"

The bald man's head started to flush red, "Of course, 5 million credits for successful delivery and 1 million if information you provide leads to their capture. Isn't that right?"

"10 million."

"What!?" squawked the mustachioed man.

"5 million per person."

The mustachioed man grudgingly acquiesced but said, "The realian is the important one, make sure you get him. Saotome is only a bonus."

The bald man pointed at Nodoka, "Nodoka Saotome will provide you with any details you need."

Ryoga looked startled, "Saotome?" Nodoka didn't respond so Ryoga let the point drop. He looked around and said, "Well if that's all, I'll take my leave. I'll contact you later Mrs. Saotome."

As he left one of the Sub-Committee members let out a sigh, "That is a one strange fellow…"

**Present, Ariadne space outside Athens Column**

A small space freighter drifted lazily through space.

"Ryoga…where the hell are we now?"

The man in question was busy at work trying to answer that same question.

"Damn it Ryoga! What possesses you to navigate by hand!?"

Ryoga kept working away at his navigation terminal.

"This always happens! Why do I even work with you!?"

Ryoga finally looked at the man who was shouting at him and growled, "Shut up." Mousse, a tall young man with a bad attitude, was the pilot of his ship. Ryoga frowned at his navigation equipment. "I think we're in Ariadne space."

"I thought we were going to Second Miltia."

"So did I."

Mousse sighed and sat back down, "Well I guess I'll get us turned around. Maybe you'd better let the computer handle this trip Ryoga."

"Wait." The command had come from a woman who had just entered the cockpit.

Ryoga looked behind him and, like always, was a little shocked at her long violet hair and stunning good-looks. "What is it, Kaosu?"

Kaosu walked over to him and snorted. "If you two would stop bickering for minute an open your eyes you might see something interesting," she said condescendingly as she pointed rather vaguely.

Ryoga looked out the view port and saw that there was indeed something out in space, and it looked like wreckage. "Mousse, steer us towards that wreckage." The freighter turned hesitantly and started to head in the exact opposite direction of the wreckage. "And put your glasses on you dope! Givin' me a hard time…"

Mousse donned his glasses sulkily and started the freighter in the direction of the wreckage. They were about half-way there when the transmission light popped up on Ryoga's terminal. Kaosu reached over his shoulder and keyed it. A screen materialized in front of Ryoga showing a young, red-headed girl.

"This is Kiritsu of the E.S. Rueben!" The girl shouted. "Would you mind, uh, rescuing us?"

"This is Ryoga Hibiki, Captain of the freighter Katsunishiki. What happened here?"

"The taskforce was attacked and destroyed by gnosis but they're already gone. All the people that survived have already abandoned ship. They have life-support for a significant amount of time. I, however, was out in space for days before I was picked up by the Woglinde and my life support is almost depleted."

Ryoga sat back and keyed the mute button. "That didn't make a whole lot of sense but I think she's in trouble, you guys think we should help her?"

Mousse grunted a noncommittally but Kaosu said, "Why not? Best case scenario we learn in more detail what happened here, worst case, we can still charge her a fee once we drop her off."

"Drop her off? We need to head to Second Miltia right away."

"So we drop her at Second Miltia. They'll be able to get where there going from there. Besides, you heard her; she might die if we don't help."

Ryoga sighed, but he couldn't argue with the logic. He keyed the mute button off and said, "O.K., I'm opening the hatch, the coordinates are…"

Several minutes later Kiritsu was bowing to Ryoga. "Thanks for the rescue." Ryoga started to nod and then stopped and stared at Kiritsu, his cybernetic eye had told him that she was a realian. 'But she's got such a human demeanor,' Ryoga thought. 'I never would have guessed…'

Kiritsu straightened up and introduced the woman who had come aboard with her. "This is Ukyo Kounji; she's a scientist with Vector."

Ryoga returned Ukyo's bow and introduced the two men standing next to him. "The kid with the glasses is my pilot, Mousse."

"Who's a kid? I'm older than you are!"

Ryoga ignored him and pointed at a tall gentle looking man. "This is Tofu, our resident jack-of-all-trades, physician, mechanic, back-up pilot, excreta."

Tofu bowed and murmured, "Nice to meet you."

"And our last crew member is Kaosu, and she—"

"Nihao!" Kaosu shouted happily. "What I do is this!" Kaosu vaulted over the navigation terminal and landed right in front of a gnosis that had somehow infiltrated his ship. She thrust her hand right through the gnosis's translucent torso and it abruptly stopped moving. She then clenched her fist and the gnosis simply disintegrated.

Ryoga sighed in relief and said, "Good job."

Kiritsu let her energy sword dissipate and said "Impressive."

Ukyo looked at him with wide eyes and said, "Is that all you can say!? She just destroyed a gnosis with her hand! Her _hand_!" Kiritsu just shrugged.

"Anyway," Ryoga continued. "We're headed to Second Miltia but we'll stop at a nearby dock colony that I know of to report that there are people who need rescuing out here in case nobody picked up their distress signal. We can drop you off there if you like."

"Actually," Ukyo said. "I live on Second Miltia so if it's O.K. with you I'll hitch a ride there."

"That's fine. Is Kiritsu with you?"

"Actually, I'm not." Kiritsu said. "I've got other business, but I, too, will stay with you until Second Miltia."

'Interesting, an independent realian.' Out loud Ryoga said, "Well, let's get going!"

**The Dämmerung**

A hooded man bowed before an ancient lady and said, "I have a report."

"Go ahead."

"Ukyo Kounji and the realian have been rescued by Ryoga Hibiki and his…crew."

"I see." The old women got up and hopped over to a window to stare out into space. "There's no longer a need for us to continue serving the Federation. Besides, the data for the Rhine Maiden is now complete. All phenomena are moving forward as specified by this Compass of Order." The old woman cackled as she turned around to look at the hooded man. "Continue to gather the necessary factors and wait for the other one to awaken…"

"Of course, Mistress."

**In space where the planet Ariadne used to be**

A squat, heavily armored, humanoid craft drifted though empty space. In the cockpit of the E.S. Asher, Akane whistled. "Nothing. An entire planet was here a few days ago, and now, nothing. Sayuri, you getting anything on the sensors?"

A screen popped up in front of Akane's face. "Nope, not a thing," Sayuri answered. "It's as if even the atoms are at rest."

Akane frowned. "That's so weird. If it was a giant flare there should at least be some high energy particles." Akane scratched her chin. "Oh well, nothing I can do out here, I'm coming back aboard." Akane angled her craft back towards the Musashi. She looked upon her ship fondly. She had designed it to look like a dragon, one of the mythical creatures she had read about in her antique books. The Musashi was several kilometers long from its snout to the tip of its tail, it had four legs that ended in claws that could easily rend the metal of most other ships and it was painted the same color as Akane's hair, a dark blue. Akane piloted Asher into its private hanger and made her way up to the bridge.

"Welcome back, Akane." Yuka and Sayuri, Akane's first mates, said.

Akane nodded. "I can't believe this, Ariadne is completely vanished, but it doesn't seem like it was destroyed. It's almost like someone is hiding it."

Yuka arched an eyebrow. "Why would anyone hide a planet? And where?"

"Got me." Akane said. "The best way to figure that out is to ask the person who hid it. Sayuri?"

"Yeah," Sayuri responded. "I'm getting a reaction from the primer."

Akane mulled that bit of news over for a bit and then snapped her head up. "Have you heard from the Federation fleet?"

"Actually," Sayuri said. "We just picked up a distress signal from them but they're already back at the Athens Column, which is at least an hour away."

Yuka made a face. "Yeah, and it was the gnosis, so they probably won't last minutes."

"Well, we may still be able to help. Set course for the last known coordinates of the Federation fleet!"

**The Warship Blue Thunder**

A U-TIC soldier saluted and said, "Commander Kuno! We have a report from Lieutenant Commander Vanderkam, the only surviving member of the infiltration team. The Woglinde was attacked by gnosis. The unit was decimated; the Zohar Emulator and the realian found with it, unsecured."

"Where is the Zohar now?"

"Unknown; possibly seized by the gnosis."

"I see. Send a reconnaissance team to the site of the battle, the Emulator might still be there."

"Yes, sir!" The U-TIC soldier saluted and exited the room.

Kuno tensed up as he heard a familiar laugh behind him. "Oh, brother dear, this is just too rich. First your experiment on Ariadne fails, killing one and half billion people I might add, and then to make matters worse you lose the Emulator."

Kuno sniffed. "It was a necessary experiment. And what's a billon commoners to us?"

"The Federation won't see it that way."

"What have I to fear from the," Kuno uttered the word as something foul, "_Federation._ Don't tell me you've forgotten everything we've been striving for these past 14 years."

"No… of course I haven't."

**Site of the wreckage of the Federation Taskforce**

Akane maneuvered E.S. Asher to set down in the Woglinde's A.G.W.S. hanger. "Bingo! I found the remains of a Zohar security ring. This has got to be what they were after. Sayuri see if you can trace them. I hope they're still hanging around, if they're too far away we're out of luck."

"Roger."

"I can't believe you're hoping they're still around!" Yuka squawked. "Aren't you scared?"

Akane shrugged. "There are lots of things scarier in this universe than gnosis. By the way have you picked up all the escape pods yet?"

"Yeah, we just got the last one. There were distressingly few."

Abruptly, a warning light started blaring in Asher's cockpit. "What the heck?" Akane noticed that six robots had surrounded her. "Looks like someone got here before me!" The robots all let loose with their laser cannons but their shots bounced harmlessly off Asher's thick armor. Using the guns slung under both forearms of Asher, Akane made short work of her enemies. After she finished off the last one, the Woglinde started to shake. "What's going on!?"

Yuka shouted, "A battleship just appeared and is firing on the Woglinde! Get out of there Akane!"

Akane successfully escaped from the Woglinde and hurriedly made her way to the Musashi's hanger and then to the bridge. "So is it U-TIC?" she asked when she entered the bridge.

"No doubt about it," Sayuri responded. "And now they're firing on the Musashi!"

"Activate all shields." Akane commanded. She looked out at the opposition, one U-TIC battleship and four support ships. 'Nothing the Musashi can't handle," she thought smugly. "Begin start-up sequence for Dragon's Breath!"

"Dragon's Breath ready!" chimed her head gunner.

"Aim towards those two support ships to the left! And as soon as you're ready fire another salvo at the support ships to the right! We'll teach 'em why nobody messes with the Musashi!" Millions of laser ports located in the mouth of the Musashi's mouth all fired at the same time. The salvo washed over two of the supporting ships and completely obliterated them. After the other two support ships were destroyed by the same method, the U-TIC battleship prudently decided to retreat. "It'd be nice if we could let them go, but they started all this. Catch 'em!" The Musashi quickly caught up with the battleship and bit down locking the ship in its jaws. A drill came up (Akane liked to think of it as the Musashi's tongue) and pierced the side of the ship allowing Akane's soldiers to pour into the ship. "Yuka, let's go see if we can get some information from the battleship's mainframe."

Akane and Yuka made their way to the infiltration point and then started to walk through the corridors of the battleship. Akane was proud to see that her soldiers had made quick work of the ship's interior defenses. When they arrived at the ship's bridge, it was curiously deserted. "Huh, they must have taken off as soon as we boarded."

Yuka nodded, "Ah, here's the mainframe. They didn't trash it! What amateurs." Yuka looked at the terminal for a while and said, "Hmm, this may take a while but I think I can handle it."

"What? This doesn't look that hard to operate…" Akane tapped a key and warning sirens started to shriek "Warning! Warning! Self-destruct sequence activated! All hands evacuate immediately!"

"Oh, no!" Yuka cried in distress. "Akane, you're such a klutz sometimes!"

"Sorry! I didn't mean—"Akane stopped because she heard sounds of a struggle coming from outside the entrance to the bridge. Six U-TIC soldiers raced in and let loose with their machine guns. Akane tackled Yuka so that they both slid behind a nearby work station. "Yuka, are you O.K.?"

"I-I think so…"

Akane drew two hand guns and chanced a peek around the work station. The soldiers were slowly advancing towards her position in a half circle. Akane took a deep breath and launched herself sideways. She managed to get off two shots before she skidded behind the next terminal. One went wide but the other blasted right through the chest of one of the soldiers. The soldiers sent a stream of bullets her way and at this moment Yuka popped up and shot one of the soldiers. Akane made use of the soldiers' momentary confusion and leaped high over the terminal she was hiding behind. She landed with each foot planted squarely in a U-TIC soldier's face, and then she quickly neutralized the remaining soldiers.

Yuka made her way over to the mainframe and said, "This thing is trashed."

Akane nodded wearily. "Let's get out of here before this ship blows. We need to head back to the Foundation and report what happened."

**Author's Notes**

Sorry that chapter took so long. My _one_ pre-reader broke up with his girlfriend. Anyway I could always use more pre-readers, if you're intrested e-mail me at I like the idea of having German titles but I don't know German and wouldn't want to mess up so if anyone would be willing to translate for me that'd be nice.

Thanks for reading!


	3. Gnosis

**The Katsunishiki **

Ukyo had no idea where she was. Everything was in black and white.

She was in…a graveyard? A figure was approaching her. She couldn't see who it was through the dense fog. A light illuminated the area, hurting her eyes. A little girl was standing in front of her, she opened her mouth…Ukyo sat up in her bed breathing hard, the remnants of the dream already slipping out of her mind.

Ryoga's voice came over the intercom, "You girls awake? Come to the bridge right away, we have a problem."

Kiritsu and Kaosu hopped out of bed and raced off towards the bridge. Ukyo followed more slowly, wondering what the problem was now. They had probably gone in the wrong direction. After a few false starts in the wrong direction they had made it to the Dock Colony. Now they were supposedly headed towards Second Miltia. When she reached the bridge the air was very tense. "What's going on?"

Ryoga glanced at her and tersely said, "We're being dragged out of hyperspace."

"Is that possible!?"

"Apparently so." Kiritsu answered. Ukyo was surprised to see that Kiritsu was wearing a tank-top and boxers of all things.

The Katsunishiki dropped out of hyperspace and right into the largest concentration of gnosis Ukyo had ever seen, there had to be several thousand of them. "My god…"

Mousse hopped out of the pilot seat and shouted, "Kaosu! Take the controls!" He quickly moved to a separate terminal and began hastily typing commands. Kiritsu cursed and grabbed Ukyo by the arm shouting, "Come with me!" They dashed through the Katsunishiki to the hanger were E.S. Rueben was stored. The cockpit opened up and Kiritsu waved at Ukyo. "Quick, get in!"

**The Bridge of the Katsunishiki**

'Where the hell are they going?' Ryoga wondered angrily after Kiritsu and Ukyo had left the bridge. "Mousse, what can we do?"

"Well, the Katsunishiki is armed to the teeth but it does us no good against the gnosis because we can't hurt them until they're hit with a Hilbert wave."

"I see…so our only chance is to escape. I'll try to see if I can find a spot where their influence is weak enough that we'll be able to gate out. Kaosu, we're counting on you."

Kaosu didn't even respond but Ryoga could tell she was putting her whole concentration on keeping the Katsunishiki from being destroyed. Abruptly, Kiritsu's face popped up in front Ryoga's face. "Say, would you like those gnosis solid?"

"Huh?" Ryoga looked up to see Kiritsu's craft fly over the bridge's view port.

**E.S. Reuben**

"I said, 'would you like those gnosis solid?'" Ukyo watched Kiritsu's conversation with Ryoga and wondered what she was getting at. How could she solidify all those gnosis? Her Hilbert wave could only extend a few meters. Kiritsu curled her hands around two knobs and started to concentrate. She mumbled under her breath, "Alright Rueben, let's show our stuff." A huge blue wave emerged from Rueben enveloping the whole mass of gnosis. Ukyo went slack-jawed. From above her she heard Kiritsu say, "Damn we're good!"

**Katsunishiki**

Ryoga's amazement eventually gave into bloodlust. "Mousse…" he growled.

"Yes, sir!" came an enthusiastic response. Mousse, the master of hidden weapons, had personally armed the Katsunishiki. Blades, spikes, spiked balls attached to chains, laser ports, missile ports, and various other weapons emerged en masse from every conceivable place on the ship. Kaosu complemented the weapons by diving through gnosis to tear them apart and executing barrel rolls that turned the ship into a giant flail. E.S. Reuben was no less impressive. With a katana in each hand the machine cut down the smaller gnosis with abandon, its long range weaponry, which, if Ryoga heard right, Ukyo was controlling, kept the E.S. from being overwhelmed.

They had destroyed scores of gnosis before Kaosu let out an alarmed "Damn!"

"What?" And then he saw, they were headed right for an incredibly huge gnosis. "Avoid it!"

Kaosu gave him a withering stare, "That thought had crossed my mind, but unfortunately the controls aren't responding."

"Damn…" Ryoga thought for a minute. "Can you still accelerate?"

"Yeah…" Kaosu said uncertainly.

Mousse got it right away though. "That's…brilliant! You do have your moments Ryoga." He looked at Kaosu. "Accelerate to maximum; this ship's got enough blades on it that it may cut right through the damn thing!"

**E.S. Rueben **

Ukyo watched in horrified fascination as the Katsunishiki slammed right through the giant gnosis leaving a hole in its wake. As Kiritsu followed the Katsunishiki, Ukyo noticed weird things that were attached to the gnosis. They were _human _things, like walls and signs. She racked her brain for information on the gnosis. She assumed this was the gnosis named Cathedral Ship since it was the only one on record that was this big but she had never heard that it had human things attached to it. They finally exited the hole and she saw that the Katsunishiki was orbiting the large room. She looked around and noticed something, "Hey, Kiritsu, isn't that the uh…the…"

"The Zohar!" Kiritsu gasped. She immediately keyed a communication to the Katsunishiki. "Ryoga! It's the Zohar Emulator! We need to get it away from the gnosis."

**The Katsunishiki**

"Yeah, yeah, Kaosu has been giving me an earful. Alright fine, go ahead Mousse…" A large grappling hook emerged from the bottom of the Katsunishiki and latched unto the Emulator. The grappling reeled in until the Emulator was just a few meters below and running parallel to the Katsunishiki. "O.K., so what should we do now that we're back in control of the ship?"

"We better make a run for it. The ship is practically defenseless since most of our weapons were lost when we crashed into this gnosis." Mousse said.

"Agreed, and I think I've found us a route out of here. Kaosu, can you get us to these coordinates?"

"Of course."

"Alright then. Kiritsu, we'll need to gate-out as soon as we can so you should board."

"Right."

After E.S. Rueben was docked, Ryoga took a deep breathe and said, "Here goes nothing."

The Katsunishiki exited through the hole that had been made as the ship had crashed through Cathedral Ship but when they emerged they were immediately set upon by gnosis. Mousse used his remaining weapons and, in combination with Kaosu's superior piloting, they made it out of the mass of gnosis.

"We're almost ther—" Ryoga stopped short as the ship shook wildly. "Kaosu, what's going on!?"

"A gnosis must have got on the Katsunishiki! The engines are destroyed!"

"What!?" cried Ryoga.

"The gnosis are pulling us back in…" Mousse said dejectedly. "We're doomed."

Ryoga watched helplessly as the mass of gnosis loomed nearer. Without warning a huge mass of laser fire washed over the nearest group of gnosis, completely obliterating them. Following the laser blast a huge blue monster tore into the gnosis, shredding them with its teeth and claws.

"It's the Musashi!" Kaosu cried.

**The Musashi**

Akane sat with each hand over a glowing blue ball. She was controlling the Musashi's every move and it took her whole concentration.

"It's amazing when she does this." Yuka whispered.

"It sure is," Sayuri agreed. "At any rate, let's make contact with that ship out there." Sayuri keyed a communication and it was answered almost immediately by a young man with a metal faceplate.

"This is Ryoga Hibiki, Captain of the freighter Katsunishiki. I would like to thank you for your timely rescue."

"You can thank Akane later but right now she a little busy. My name is Sayuri—"

"Uh, Sayuri we've got a bit of a problem here." Yuka said worriedly.

"Hang on." Sayuri turned to Yuka and asked, "What's up?"

"Look at the power levels. We've used the Dragon's Breath too many times. If we use the power it will take to destroy the gnosis we won't be able to gate-out. And look at the damage the gnosis have already done, we may lose anyway."

"She right," Akane said in a strained voice. "I've never see gnosis fight like this before. It's so coordinated."

"So, will have to escape then," Sayuri said. "Mr. Hibiki, is your ship capable of gating out?"

"No, our engines are completely destroyed."

"Damn!" Yuka cursed. "We can't take the time to let them dock!"

"Don't worry," Akane said. "I have a plan."

The Musashi disengaged from the gnosis and sped towards the Katsunishiki. The Musashi seized the Katsunishiki with its jaws and immediately gated out.

**The Katsunishiki**

"My Ship!" Ryoga screamed. "They just destroyed my ship! I'll kill them!"

"Calm down, Ryoga," Tofu said. "After all, they did save us from the gnosis."

"Yeah," snorted Mousse. "Remember those? The things that were going to destroy your ship _and _kill us?"

But Ryoga wasn't listening; he stormed out of the bridge, with the rest of the crew trailing after him, muttering, "How could they do this? Those bastards! This is the last memento I have of Akari…and they destroyed it!"

Kiritsu turned to Kaosu and asked, "Who is Akari?"

"She was his wife. This was her ship; the Katsunishiki."

Kiritsu nodded thoughtfully. Ryoga halted in front of the docking bay door and went to open it.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Mousse said. "You don't know if it's safe to open that door."

"I don't care," Ryoga snarled.

"Well I do!" Mousse shot back.

They continued on like this for quite awhile until Kaosu shushed them. "You here that?"

Kiritsu nodded. "It sounds like a drill."

Ryoga used his cybernetic eye to see through the wall of the ship. He didn't like what he saw. "No, no, no, no, NO, NO, NOO!" A drill pierced the side of the Katsunishiki despite Ryoga's protestations. The top of the drill popped off revealing that the inside of the drill was hollow and just tall enough to emit an average sized man.

A soldier stepped through the drill into the Katsunishiki. "You need to evacuate the ship at URK!" Ryoga grabbed the man by the throat and slammed him into a wall.

"What the _hell_ do you think you're doing to my ship?" Unfortunately for the man, Ryoga didn't look like he was going to let him answer. Tofu calmly tapped a pressure point on Ryoga's shoulder that temporarily caused him to lose control of the muscles in his arm.

"Ryoga, calm down." Tofu looked at the soldier. "You were saying?"

The soldier stood back up rubbing his neck and glaring balefully at Ryoga. "I was saying that this ship is losing oxygen fast so you need to come with me."

"Fine, but I'll need you to show me to the captain of the ship that just destroyed Akari's Katsunishiki," Ryoga said menacingly.

"Of course," the soldier said stiffly.

They made their way through the Musashi and when they made it to the command bridge Ryoga barged in demanding, "Who's the captain of this piece of junk?"

"That'd be me, although I wouldn't refer to it as a 'piece of junk.'"

Ryoga oriented on the sound of the voice and, pointing his hand dramatically, he shouted, "Well you listen here—"Ryoga stopped short when he got a look at the captain. She looked like she couldn't be a day older than sixteen. A red beret was perched atop her short dark blue hair; a short dress, with red sleeves and skirt and a white bodice, complimented the beret; her legs were clad in sheer black tights and a pair of ankle-high red boots finished the outfit. In short, she was unbearably cute. Ryoga's tirade died on the tip of his tongue and instead he came out with a pitiful "Hi."

"I'm really sorry about your ship but I couldn't see any other option at the time. The Foundation had some of the best repair facilities in the universe though, so we should have you ship fixed up quickly."

"Ha, ha, that's fine, don't worry about. We're all alive and that's what matters!"

"What a remarkable change of heart," Mousse said sarcastically.

Ryoga elbowed him in the face. "I'm Ryoga Hibiki, Captain of the Katsunishiki. This guy is Mousse, my pilot. These girls are—" Ryoga's head snapped back violently with twin jets of blood shooting from his nose. The crew of the Musashi gasped but Tofu just calmly squatted down next to the downed man and pinched his nose shut.

Mousse covered his eyes and shook his head in embarrassment. "So he finally noticed…"

"N-noticed what?" Akane asked.

"Well Ryoga sometimes blushes so hard that blood shoots out of his nose when he unexpectedly sees girls who are…well…" he gestured at the three girls who had come over from the Katsunishiki and no one had trouble guessing at what he was getting at. The girls having been roused in an emergency hadn't had time to get dressed. Kiritsu was wearing boxers and a tank-top that left little to the imagination, Ukyo was only wearing the short dress part of her uniform which was sleeveless and barely long enough to cover her bottom, and Kaosu clad only in a simple a white silk shirt that (luckily for Ryoga) stretched down to about mid-thigh but (unluckily) was only about half-way buttoned up. Of the three only Ukyo reacted, futilely trying to tug her dress lower. Fortunately, Akane blushingly ushered them out of the bridge and took them to her room so they could borrow some clothes.

**Akane's Room**

Akane was about ready to explode. She had grown more and more irritated as she had lead the three girls to her room thanks to the fact that the vast majority of her soldiers had stopped work to gawk at the three partially dressed women, a few even having the nerve to whistle and cat-call appreciatively. Then, when they had made it to the sanctuary of her room, Kaosu and Kiritsu had criticized just about every garment she owned.

"I suppose this'll do…" sighed Kaosu as she slipped on a pair of black Capri pants. Ukyo had already put on a pair of khaki slacks that transformed the top part of her uniform into a sleeveless shirt, leaving only Kiritsu, who couldn't make up her mind.

"All your clothes are so girly." Kiritsu whined.

"Just pick something already!" Akane shouted in frustration.

"Fine!" Kiritsu arbitrarily grabbed a t-shirt and tugged it over her head. It was black with pink pig adorning the front. Kiritsu grimaced but kept it on as she pulled on a pair of blue jeans and snarled, "Happy?"

"Very." Akane muttered as she rolled her eyes.

"So what did you do with the Emulator?" Kiritsu asked, abruptly changing subjects.

Akane's eyebrows shot up and she said, "You know what it is? Well, I can show you the Zohar storage area if you like."

"You have more of them?"

"Yep. Why don't I call your friends and give you the tour."

As they exited her room a loud groan emitting from a soldier who was obviously hoping to catch a glimpse of the half-naked women finally made Akane lose it and she ferociously booted the offending soldier down the length of the hall. The soldier scrambled to his feet and ran down the hall screaming, "Akane's in one of her moods again!"

"One of her moods?" Kiritsu asked, trying to in vain control her mirth.

"Shut it."

**Zohar Storage Facility**

Ukyo gazed up at the Zohar Emulators that were arranged in a half circle, six to each side and an empty slot for one right in the center. She squinted and noticed there was a word on one of the Emulators. "Hey that Emulator says 'Peter.'" She looked at the next one, "And that one says 'Andrew' and the next on says…um…"

"Boanerges, Thomas, John, Philip, Matthew, Bartholomew, James, Thaddeus, Simon, Judas." Ryoga said. "And the one in the center says 'Marienkind.'"

"Marienkind?" Ukyo murmured.

"It means 'child of Mary.'" Akane supplied.

"Why do you have all these Emulators?" Tofu asked.

"Well…are company dabbles in a bit of everything." Akane answered evasively. "And you need something to deal with the gnosis these days. We certainly can't wait for the Federation…" she muttered bitterly.

"Wait. Your company dabbles? Your part of the Tendo Foundation right? How can an ordinary Foundation gather so many Emulators when the government found it important that they had just one? Not to mention the Musashi, which far out-classes any government warship. Who are you people?" Ukyo pressed.

"Well we were more or less a government organization previously…" Akane started.

"What's behind that door?" Kiritsu asked, pointing towards a door located under the slot the said 'Marienkind.'

Obviously relieved by the topic change Akane said, "Why don't I show you?" She led them into a room that looked like a laboratory. "This is where we study the gnosis phenomenon." Ukyo gasped when she saw a creature that looked like half-women half-gnosis floating in a tank. "Pretty disturbing huh?"

"What happened to her?"

"We don't know. Sometimes when a gnosis attacks a human instead of killing them outright it grabs them and does… something. Most people turn white and dissolve but a few turn into to gnosis for whatever reason."

"That's horrible!"

"You're telling me. And we can't even help them. Do you know what gnosis are composed of?" Ukyo shook her head. "Salt. Plain old sodium chloride. I mean, how could a creature like a gnosis can be made of salt. It's impossible yet it's a fact."

"Does anyone know what caused the gnosis? I know some people say that they're not from this universe. That that's why they are translucent until they are hit with a Hilbert wave."

"I don't know. Unofficially, gnosis have been around for centuries. But after a certain…incident 14 years ago, they became much more prevalent."

"The Miltian Conflict…" Tofu murmured.

"Right." Akane said. "Unable to bear his curiosity, Genma Saotome opened Pandora's Box and unleashed the gnosis into the universe…and now we're all paying for it."

"Genma Saotome, wasn't he the brilliant scientist who founded the U-TIC organization?" Ukyo asked.

"Brilliant? He was a lunatic!"

"You take that back!" It was Kiritsu who had spoken up. She continued furiously, "Pop wasn't a lunatic!"

**Author's Notes**

Please review! I've had more hits on this story than any other yet less reviews. What's up with that?


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